Trailer Talk Wonka
UNFILTERED, UNCENSORED, UNCOMPROMISING TRAILER REACTIONS FROM TEAM EMPIRE
Ben Travis (Deputy Online Editor): This film has to justify why Paul King is not directing Paddington 3, which is the highest bar.
Nick de Semlyen (Editor): I’m hoping it turns out to be part of the PCU — the Paddington Cinematic Universe — and that Paddington will turn up at the end to recruit Wonka. Marmalade and chocolate together? They’d be the confectionery Avengers.
Alex Godfrey (Features Editor): Do you think in the 11th hour Timothée Chalamet’s voice will be replaced by Ben Whishaw’s?
Ben: I hope there’s a scene in the film where he specifically invents Nerds. Is anyone a fan of Nerds?
James Dyer (Digital Editor-in-chief ): Horrible, horrible things. What’s your favourite sweet?
Alex: I do like a Peanut Butter Chunky Kitkat.
Graham Jones (Deputy Art Director): I love a Daim bar, although you are always picking it out of your teeth.
James: I quite like Revels, except the coffee and orange ones are quite vile.
Alex: Just buy Maltesers.
Beth Webb (News Editor): The costume is totally wonderful. [1]
Nick: What do we think about Chalamet’s casting in this?
Beth: I think it’s obvious casting. He’s got the build, that wiry energy. He’s not a conventional leading man, but Wonka isn’t a conventional character.
Nick: I’ve heard people saying that Jeremy Allen White from The Bear should have been in the running.
James: He’s got the right face, but I’m used to seeing him all stressed out and intense.
Sophie Butcher (Social-media Editor): He’s not got that whimsical energy.
Ben: So I’ve got a theory about Timothée’s slightly weird delivery here: I think these are song lyrics, and at this part in the actual film he’s gearing up to break into song.
Alex: I don’t think so. Paul King has described
this as a spiritual prequel to the Gene Wilder film, and Gene Wilder does have that weird lilt to his delivery.
James: He’s supposed to be a bit out of sorts.
Nick: Wonka’s like the Joker. He’s a psychopath.
Sophie: Olivia Colman’s looking very villainous here. [2]
James: That’s actually her character from Secret Invasion.
Ben: She’s playing someone called Scrubbit and she’s got a partner called Bleacher.
Nick: They’re not from the books but those are great Roald Dahl-y names.
Beth: Like Sponge and Spiker.
Ben: Paul King has described them as proper Dahl-esque, grotesque characters.
Beth: The production design, when it’s not big CGI sequences, is glorious. The potions here are gorgeous. [3]
Nick: It looks a bit Breaking Bad to me. It all looks very addictive.
Beth: I think I spotted some bright-blue crackling candy on that back shelf.
Sophie: I want to talk about the “chocolate cartel” that’s being mentioned in this film at some point. [4]
Ben: Apparently they’re fancy chocolatiers who aren’t happy with Wonka crashing their game.
Beth: I want to talk about Johnson from Peep Show appearing in this film. It’s a Peep Show reunion with Olivia Colman! Super Hans would’ve been a solid back-up if Timothée and Ben Whishaw fall through.
James: Rowan Atkinson seems to revive his role as the priest in Four Weddings And A Funeral later on as well.
Beth: They do get the best character actors for Paul King’s films.
James: What kind of artificial sweeteners are in those sweets that would cause you to fly up like that? [5]
Alex: Have you not seen the original film? They have floating candy in the original film. It’s called Fizzy Lifting Lemonade or something.
Ben: They’re also cooking up new stuff that belongs to that world as well.
Nick: So they’ve got David Heyman on this, who is one of the producers of the Harry Potter movies. Do you think they’re going to make a franchise out of this?
Alex: It’s difficult to say.
Beth: We have to keep in mind that Netflix has a massive Dahl deal; Taika Waititi has two Wonka things in the pipeline. So if we get a franchise as well that’s going to be a whole lotta Wonka.
James: At least this is scrappy up-and-comer Wonka, as opposed to chocolate magnate Elon Musk, which is how it could have gone.
Ben: Hopefully we get to see him being a creative person and inventing things, because he’s made everything by the time we get to Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
Nick: This is glorious. [6]
Alex: The little flute motif that he plays is used in the original film as well.
James: The Wonka whisperer over here.
Nick: The Wonkologist.
James: This has got to be the only movie trailer that ends on a shot of Hugh Grant’s butt-cheeks. Beth: Was that not the case for Paddington 2?
WONKA IS IN CINEMAS FROM 15 DECEMBER